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My Granny Hibbitt (Ivy Alice Hibbitt, nee Dando) was born on 1st September 1904 above a sweet and tobacconist shop called the Golden Butterfly in Saffron Walden in Essex.

After moving to Plymouth with her family, she attended Gunnerside School for Girls situated in North Road East in Plymouth. In 1920 she joined the Post Office working as a telephone operator and married my Grandpa in 1931, having previously been engaged to three other men. Way to go, Granny! She later worked in Bond, Pearce, Eliott & Knape Solicitors in Plymouth until she retired in 1961.

Much of Granny and Grandpa's early married life was spent in Tavistock where they rented a bungalow which they named Walden after Granny's birth place. They retired to the village of East Allington in the South Hams and I can remember many happy visits to their house, days spent on Grandpa's little boat on the Kingsbridge/Salcombe estuary and walks down by the local stream where there was an abundance of bluebells.

Granny had a funny turn of phrase. She was well-spoken but would mess around with words too, sometimes pretending to be posh (with huge tongue in cheek) and then using poor grammar on purpose just because she liked the sound of it, I guess. Here's an excerpt of a letter she wrote to my dad in 1950 when dad was presumably away on a course...

"...We are very glad you are coming back and your honourable Father will meet you at North Road Station whence you will proceed to the offices of the most important and highly respected solicitors in the West of England and pick up your most esteemed Mother. Thence to your country home in the wilds of Dartmoor."

She goes on...

"I am of a most desolate miserable disconsolateness about my Peter Lansdale wot only got 8 points. I had set my heart on him winning it, the poor darling. I expect some beastly, dirty, filthy, lousy, swinish, form of human life in the shape of another speedway rider put his elbows out and pushed my Pete..."

She did make me laugh a lot, did Gran.

After Grandpa died in 1972, Granny stayed on in their cottage until her final year in 1992.

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I've added a new feature to my family history website - family tree pedigree charts of Harvey's and my direct ancestors. The charts are in PDF format and can be zoomed in and out in order to view different parts of the family.

These charts are especially useful as a starting point for those matching our DNA but they can also help anyone interested in finding out where individuals might fit into our trees.

You haven't seen many blog posts from me in recent months but this isn't to say I haven't been busy with genealogy. On the contrary, I thought it was about time I worked on expanding Harvey's family tree which, until recently, had 88 individuals within 32 families. The BARNES Tree has now grown to 506 individuals within 171 families covering all of Harvey's ancestral lines.

Some branches remain fairly sparse whereas others reach back to the 17th century and it's interesting to discover where some of his families come from.

Harvey's dad was from Newlyn in Cornwall and three quarters of Harvey's paternal side hailed from this area or from within a few miles of the village. Some of the primary names include BARNES, HARVEY, THOMAS, REYNOLDS, DAWES, TRELEAVEN, TREGURTHA, KEIGWIN, KELYNACK, COTTON, TONKIN, REED, PAUL, LEAH and GUY. The final quarter comprised the WRIGHT family from East Devon and the DEVERILL family from Mere in Wiltshire.

Harvey's maternal families are more widely spread. His grandad's father, William SMITH, was from Selkirk and the generation before him was from Dumfries. Harvey's grandad's mother's line was the London-based BYDEN family with older generations originating from Southampton and there were also the DAVEYs from Sussex. We also find offshoots from Harvey's maternal grandmother living in parts of Kent. These were the GARDNER, BUTCHER, CROTHALL, LAW and WORGER families. In London we find ancestors by the names of ADAMS and HARLEY. Finally, in Norfolk, we have the APPLEGATE, ALLEN, BIRD, EVERETT, JACKSON and WABON families.

There are two 9 x great-grandfathers in the tree; Richard JENNENS/JENNINGS from Ludgvan, Cornwall, whose eldest child was born in about 1684; and John ARGOLL, also from Ludgvan, whose daughter was born in about 1681. There may, in fact, be 8 x great-grandparents who were even older; Robert BUTCHER and his wife, Mary STROUDE, married in Monks Horton, Kent, in 1670.

The least developed branch are the Scottish SMITH family, hindered by the fact that I don't have access to many Scottish records and the surname being so common. Nevertheless, I hope to make some more discoveries in future as we are still within the number of generations where autosomal DNA can help to provide answers.

My latest breakthrough has come via DNA testing. For some time now I have known my 5 x great-grandmother was called Anne Twogood/Toogood. She married my 5 x great-grandfather, Robert Weaver snr., in Curry Rivel, Somerset, in 1779 but I had nothing else to go on. There were no suitable baptisms in the village and I didn't know when she was born.

Then last week I received an email from a person matching my maternal aunt's DNA and I immediately noticed the name, Toogood, in his tree. It turns out this person is descended from Anne's brother, James Toogood, and so, through parish records, I was able to ascertain that my 6 x great-grandparents were Robert Toogood and Elizabeth Ostler.

Robert Toogood was baptized in nearby Aller and this is where he married Elizabeth. I went on to discover that Elizabeth's family were from Curry Rivel and so my association with this village on this line dates back to at least the early 18th century when my 7 x great-grandparents, Edward Ostler and Mary Rich, married there in 1724 and had a total of eleven children. Sadly, so many of them died as infants or children, two of them being buried within a week of each other.

Because of the random nature of DNA, it's interesting to note that my mum didn't share any DNA with this match so, not surprisingly, neither did I. This is why it's great to have other family members tested.

[Why Church Record Sunday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

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I have today launched a new page on my website briefly outlining a few suggestions for people who match our families' DNA.

There are plenty of resources on the internet offering detailed information about the subject of genealogical DNA. Rather than reinventing the wheel, my page is a starter for anyone who thinks they may be related to me or Harvey and would like to know where we tested and what else they can do with their DNA results in order to carry out deeper analysis.

Yesterday, I received the results of my AncestryDNA test. In a previous post I hinted that I thought I'd be predominantly British with possibly some Irish, Scandinavian and Western European genes. I wasn't too far off except to learn that I've inherited a substantial percentage of Irish ethnicity, estimated to be more than half.

I find this quite surprising as the only link to Ireland that I've made is a 2 x great-grandmother on my mother's side. I believe she was called Mary Ann Burgoyne but there is even confusion over her maiden name as my great-grandmother's birth certificate states she was previously called Congdon.

Mary Ann married John Gale Hellier/Hellyer in Shanagolden, Limerick, Ireland in 1871 and their first child was born in Devonport, Plymouth in 1878. John was in the Royal Navy but it is nevertheless puzzling as to why there were so many years between the marriage and the children arriving, especially as I have a feeling he may have been shored-based at various times during this period. Did Mary Ann stay in Ireland for a few years after she was married?

To add to the confusion, Mary Ann's father, William, was described as a sailor on her marriage certificate so it is possible that her own family moved around when she was growing up. Burgoyne is not an uncommon name in Tavistock, Devon, which is where the Hellyer family were from so could she have been a local girl after all?

None of this explains the exceptionally strong Irish connection in my DNA but, as DNA is passed down randomly, it's possible that I've inherited more Irish genes than I might have done if I'd been created on another day!

The DNA results incorporate hundreds of years, even up to a thousand, so it was interesting, though not surprising, to discover that I'm definitely from the European continent:

Plus less than 1% traces each of Europe West, Italy/Greece and Asia South which apparently may or may not be part of my genetic ethnicity.

Obviously there was a lot of migration between neighbouring regions so these figures are merely estimates but I find it fascinating nonetheless.

If other family members take the test, it makes it easier to see which DNA matches we have in common and therefore can offer clues about how we might be related to other people and which ancestral line we are connected through. My mum and dad have already agreed to take part.

If you're related to me and this interests you, may I encourage you to take an AncestryDNA test so we can compare notes and find those elusive ancestors.

I've just had an email to let me know my AncestryDNA kit is on its way. Having deliberated about whether to take the ethnicity and genealogical DNA test for more than a year, I've finally decided to grab the bull by the horns and get it done.

Ancestry are currently discounting the test by £20 - £79 plus £20 P+P. If you order two tests at once the postage cost on the second one is £10 instead of £20.

I'm curious to know how British I am as my research has hardly taken me outside the country. There could be some Irish blood as one of my 2 x great-grandmothers may have been Irish. And I'm imagining there might be some Scandinavian from the Vikings or Continental links from the Normans or the Saxons. If anything else turns up, it'll be quite a surprise. Getting excited already!!

As DNA is passed down randomly, it is suggested that other family members be tested too. That's because your cousin or your sibling could have inherited different sections of DNA than yourself and so more matches could show up between you. For instance, your brother could have a match to your second cousin where you might not but you'll be able to make a connection because of your brother's DNA results.

If you're related to me and you decide to take the test (or have already done so) please let me know and perhaps we could compare notes.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

A couple of weeks ago my dad, who's been a radio ham for 50 years, heard a radio contact between the British astronaut, Tim Peake, and a school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. He had to dig out his 2 metres rig which he hadn't used for ages - a small handheld receiver with a rubber duck antenna. Not having a decent aerial, he was amazed that it worked. It was the first transmission he'd heard from outer space.

Today I visited dad and listened out for another ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) contact from the ISS, this time with the City of Norwich Schools. We heard Tim Peake from here in Plymouth and I recorded it on a dictaphone and then edited it in Windows Movie Maker using screenshots from the live webcast and a photograph of dad's radio set.

Last year I posted in the Great War Forum a number of photographs which were taken by Harvey's grandad during World War I. I wanted to see if any of the forum members could identify the places and indeed they were extremely helpful.

Amongst Cyril Ellen's collection was a series of photographs of the Lower Struma in Greece, believed to have been taken by him when he was an Observer Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service, based at nearby Stavros. At the time, the River Struma formed the Front Line between the Allied and Central Powers.

Series of Photographs of the Lower Struma, September 1917(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

Six pictures were glued onto some paper to form a panorama and, at one end, a village called Kato Krusoves/Krusovo is to be seen overlooking the river. This area is now known as Kato Kerdylia because the village was destroyed by the Germans in 1941 and the male population was massacred. Only the church was rebuilt, and the original bell tower still stands as a memorial to the 230 dead of Ano and Kato Kerdylia. A forum member informed me that photographs of the village before its destruction are rare and that the picture could be of historical interest.

Zoom of the village of Kato Krusoves during the First World War(Click the image above to view a larger version.)

This brings me on to an unusual request which came via my family history website last week. A German television network called Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln or WDR (West German Broadcasting Cologne) got in touch and asked for permission to use Cyril's photo of the village in a major documentary about the atrocities committed by German forces during the Greek occupation in World War II.

Eager to find out more, I wrote back and learnt that the purpose of the documentary is to educate the German public about the atrocities in this partly forgotten aspect of the war. The background to this is the recent controversy over Greek demands for compensation relating to the time of the occupation, amounting to billions of Euros, and the programme will serve to inform people of the facts.

The TV crew visited Kerdylia a few months ago and went up to the former village, together with one of the few survivors of the massacre, the village being the first of more than 1000 completely destroyed with thousands of innocent people killed in the action to take revenge for partisan attacks.

Cyril's photographs were originally taken in 1917 when they were used together with a trench map and lists of enemy positions. The map can be viewed here and the observation post, from where the picture was taken, is clearly marked as a blue dot in Sector 47 H. More on the photographs can be seen here.

The programme, called Schuld und Schulden (Guilt and Debt), is due to be broadcast on 27th April 2016 and I understand it will also be available to watch online. As I don't speak German, I doubt I shall know what is being said which is a pity as it sounds like an interesting documentary.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]